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agelman | January 14, 2010One of the most fascinating things about political ideology is the following juxtaposition:
1. An ideology typically makes complete sense to the person holding the ideology--that is, it is internally coherent.
2. Different people have all sorts of different ideologies; thus, there is external incoherence.
To put it another way, one person might strongly believe in A & B, while somebody else equally strongly feels that A & not-B go together. The logic of ideology is not fully determined by what goes into it.
I remember thinking about this several years ago regarding positions on…
gregladen | January 14, 2010The Center for Inquiry is accepting disaster-relief donations through its S.H.A.R.E. program to support those providing care to the survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Jan. 12 near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
All donations--100 percent with no operating costs retained--will be sent directly to the secular aid group Doctors Without Borders, which suffered the loss of all three of its medical facilities and is working against difficulties to provide the basics of first-aid care and stabilization.
The needs of those who've lost their family members, their homes, and their…
gregladen | January 14, 2010The new strain of virus is likely to replace the older one; and if there's a third wave later in the year it could be more virulent. We had the equivalent of a flu season's worth of illness and deaths from August to November, when there are normally very few. In Canada, most of the people who died have been younger women (which is most unusual). So getting your flu shot is important, perhaps vital.
Read about it here
gregladen | January 14, 2010I agree that little has transformed the earth more than agriculture, but it is inaccurate to say that "30 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture." The reason that this is inaccurate is because what really counts (though it is not the only thing that counts) is the release of carbon that was previously trapped in fossil form. Such of the "green house gas" mentioned in the video does not involve fossil carbon.
Anyway, having said that, here is a blog post that is linked to the video you just watched:
The Other Inconvenient Truth
It's taken a long time, but the issue of global…
cortex | January 14, 2010There's a new and very timely paper out this week that looks at the cortical mechanics of charitable giving. While it's been known for a few years that giving away money activates the dopamine reward pathway - that's why doing good feels good - this latest paper attempted to investigate the philanthropic system in detail. In a world full of need, how do we choose where to give?
The larger goal of the scientists was to better understand a core feature of the human brain, which is the ability to assign value to alternatives. How do we know that X is better than Y? How does the cacophony of…
mspringer | January 14, 2010Why the long discussion about the period of a pendulum yesterday? Because we're actually going to take a look at a particular pendulum today. This one hangs in the central atrium of the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, which constitutes half of the beautiful and brand spanking new two-building complex now housing the Texas A&M department of physics.
The pendulum is a Foucault pendulum, meaning its support allows it to swing freely in any direction. If you put one of them at the north pole, the plane in which is swings would appear…
awild | January 14, 2010I don't have anything to add about the horrific earthquake that hasn't already been said elsewhere.
But, I've added a donation button to the right sidebar for Doctors Without Borders, an excellent non-profit group already working in Haiti when the quake hit. They are apparently operating out of makeshift clinics in the absence of functioning hospitals. Click on the button to help; other donation options are listed here.
*update* Highly Allochthonous explains the tectonics of the quake.
agelman | January 14, 2010Interesting.
The numbers should be rounded to the nearest percent--in a survey, you'll never get the precision to say anything like "45.2%"--but otherwise it's a clean display. Follow the link above for context and further discussion.
palmd | January 13, 2010An inside source on Crisler's non-steroid-fueled "muscleboards.com" (which is now reg-protected) has fed me some classy stuff:
And someone told me he thinks PalMD is a child molestor. That is why he does not post his true name. A cursory look at what he has chosen to publish shows him to be a man of very low character, certainly capable of anything. Now, should we set up a blog to crucify him? ---Dr John Crisler
They then used their testosterone super-powers to find me real name (and to publish my office address):
Now THAT is the Peter we know.
You guys (all of you!) are GOOD!
The…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Mercy Corps is said to be one of the better charities to donate to to help Haiti.
This is their main web page for Haiti.
They are: "... a team of 3700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world. By trade, we are engineers, financial analysts, drivers, community organizers, project managers, public health experts, administrators, social entrepreneurs and logisticians. In spirit, we are activists, optimists, innovators and proud partners of the people we serve. "
gregladen | January 13, 2010The user VenomfangX, famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for his videos supporting creationism and against atheism, has yet again filed false DMCA notices against several of his critics. He did this before against another YouTube user, Thunderf00t (of the Why People Laugh at Creationists series, among other things), who forced VFX to issue an apology and read a statement outlining his new understanding of DMCA law.
Read about it here
gregladen | January 13, 2010Well? What are you standing there gawking at this blog post for? Go tell DuWayne what culture is!
CLICK HERE
Thank you, that is all...
sb admin | January 13, 2010Several blog posts posts were written (by me or Stephanie Zvan) explicitly in preparation for Science Online 2010 Session C, Trust and Critical Thinking organized by Stephanie Zvan and including PZ Myers, Desiree Schell, Greg Laden, and Kirsten Sanford
The most recent post, just put up, is this one:
Who Do You Trust When It Comes to Your Precious Bodily Fluids?
For many topics of interest to the average person, there seem to be two utterly different and diametrically opposed worlds of information. These worlds are so different that one might be called "Normal World" and the other might be…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Does fluoride in the cause brain damage, food intolerance, depression, other gut problems and autism?
Read More
gregladen | January 13, 2010Why did this disaster hit Haiti? Pat Robertson will be happy to tell you.
About mid way through this report, Robertson tells us that the fact that more buildings are collapsed than standing in Haiti is a blessing in disguise.
Starting at 6 minutes, Pat explains the reasons for the disaster. He explains that the Haitian people made a deal with Satan, and have been in this arrangement ever since. The Dominicans did not make the deal with Satan, and they are all happy and not subject to disaster.
Here's a shorter clip with the most important part that may work better:
The only way out…
sb admin | January 13, 2010Do citizen science efforts ever go beyond "feel good" contributions? Do the data get published in peer-reviewed journals?
Cross-posted at Discovering Biology in a Digital World.
In an earlier post, I started a list of citizen science projects that allow students to make a contribution. Many commentors are graciously adding to that list and I thank you all! I'm glad to learn there are so many interesting projects and ways for people to get involved. Science is so empowering!
My question today concerns things like outcomes and deliverables. We'd like to assume that good things are coming…
cortex | January 13, 2010The news out of Haiti this morning is hellish; the Earth slips and thousands die. The early reports have the same feel as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in that every bulletin brings more awful news. I already find myself dreading tomorrow's newspaper, which will outline the full scope of the tragedy. Here is more information on where to donate.
I'd like to take a moment and discuss a cruel paradox of such events, which is that the sheer scale of the suffering seems to inhibit our empathy. There are no stories yet, just anecdotal shards and heartbreaking photographs. And so all we get is…
pharyngula | January 13, 2010Just about everyone is following the horrible news from Haiti, where they've been struck with a major earthquake causing great loss of life. I've been informed by multiple people now that Pat Robertson has announced the reason for this disaster: the Haitian people made a deal with the devil to free themselves from the French.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Rather than seeking to place the blame on divine retribution, I suggest that we secular people donate now to relief organizations. I'll recommend two: The Red Cross is an obvious choice; it's a secular organization that is dedicated to…
mspringer | January 13, 2010This post is background for another post I'm doing tomorrow or possibly later this week. It involves that old standby of freshman physics, the pendulum. We want to find out the period of a pendulum, the length of time the pendulum spends making one complete back-and-forth cycle. It's literally one of the oldest calculations in the book, but personally I'd rather have a background that's more complete than needed instead of possibly leaving important things out. And just for the fun of it we'll use a very slightly atypical method.
This, straight from Wikipedia, is a classic pendulum…
gregladen | January 12, 2010A while back we were discussing whether or not President Obama had done "enough" or otherwise the "right" things since becoming president.
Several commenters draged out long lists of things that were discussed during the campaign (many prior to the magnitude of the economic crisis being realized) and insisted that since none of these things had been completed in the first 10 months of his presidency, he was a total failure.
As I pointed out to these commenters, the president actually gets four years, few presidents manage to do all the things they said they would do, Obama (as was also the…